By Armand PLAKA
– The article of the French magazine “Regards”, on December 6, 1946, pg. 2, in the report entitled: “Albania – American cooperation, for the rebirth of the country…”! –
Memorie.al / Based on the publication some time ago, of the decision of the former Presidium of the People’s Assembly of the People’s Republic of Albania on the meeting of November 19, 1946, regarding the non-acceptance of requests for pardon of those sentenced to death, for what is now known as the “Process of the Maliqi Swamp”, (contribution of the researcher Kastriot Dervishi), an article came to mind, which I did not I had paid a lot of attention to it, while I was dealing with the investigation of the Western press, which broadcast news and articles about Albania during the period of monism.
The article published in the French magazine “Regards”, on December 6, 1946, p. 2, in the report entitled: “Albania – American cooperation, for the rebirth of the country…”! Recounted from the title the same irony, with the American objectives in Albania of that period, while the communists, even though in their beginnings, were showing an extreme violence against the intellectual and pro-Western elite of the country.
The French magazine in question echoes communist propaganda point by point, broadcasting the conclusions of the Court in Tirana, thus highlighting the “collaboration” of the Americans with the Albanian “saboteurs” who, according to the article, received instructions from the head of the American Mission in Albania, Harry Fultz, former director of the Technical School in Tirana.
While this article mentions the name of Fultz and his students, giving the dates of when he came and when he left (and returned only to leave forever in 1946), he who laid down roots not only professional education in Albania, as an antipode from another time, an article from the well-known magazine of the 30s in Albania, “Minerva” (see: When is Mr. Fultz leaving? – “Minerva”, June 15, 1933, pg. 15), who, in the moments of his departure from Albania, in 1933, would write:
“Anyone may wish that ‘Minerva’ would record the fact as an ordinary press chronicle, but ‘Minerva’ dogmatically believes that, no other foreigner, served the Albanian boy, with such fire of will and, with such passion we died, like Mr. Fultz!
The article is accompanied by two photos, one of which is very significant. It is precisely the bust that one of his students, the sculptor Kol Shala, was making as a tribute to his professor’s work. But in the article, in addition to the praise and gratitude for Harry Fultz’s work, a special place is also given to his students and disciples, who, with the advent of communism, would become almost entirely victims of their own faith, for the “American dream”. , designed in Albania.
“Most of these young men, today, are in different positions in Albania, under other conductors, and some of them are studying abroad. But whenever life presents them with its most difficult trials, they turn their eyes back to the one who won their hearts. Director Fultz is always ready with his mission of rejuvenation”.
In the document presented by the researcher Kastriot Dervishi, the presence (in the list of signatories who did not have a point of mercy, not forgiving even a pregnant woman) of names to whom Albanian historiography has reserved a place of honor is immediately noticeable. dressed as a dissident, such as Sejfulla Malëshova (who will be remembered as the first among his ranks, who described the NPSH as a terrorist party) or Omer Nishani (this lastly, even according to the British reports, recently brought to the public by the researcher Erald Kapri, he was even known as pro-American), which, in addition to their later tragic fate, seriously compromises the latter, even though the mind wants them not to they might have been able to resist the pressure of Enver Hoxha and, even worse, the Yugoslav one.
The publication of the document in question has rightly brought many reactions and indignation, recalling in fact one of the darkest pages of communist terror in Albania.
Known as one of the most infamous and compromising processes of the former communist regime, which completely undermined relations with the USA and sealed the fate of Albania, it also marked one of the wildest and most shameful decisions that the regime will make. to take throughout its history, making the article presented by the French magazine an example of the “uncompromising comfort” of the Western press (in this case, the French one of the time) with the decisions of the criminal case of Tirana, not trying to investigate or comment on anything, beyond the official decision of the local court, thus becoming part of the “Albanian shame” of the time.
More specifically, accompanied by a photo from the works in the Maliqi swamp, the article reads: The Albanian military court has given the verdict in the process for the investigation of a group of engineers and surveyors, accused of having committed sabotage during the works for the reclamation of the Maliqi swamp.
The five accused, including a woman, have all been sentenced to death. This group has collaborated and received directives and funds from a foreign mission in Albania. According to the defendant’s statement, Eng. Vasil Mano, the group of saboteurs, had been in a relationship with a foreigner, Harry Fultz, a member of the American Mission in Tirana. Harry Fultz arrived in Albania, in 1923-1924, as director of the Technical School in Tirana.
He left Albania in 1932-1933, when the schools were nationalized, and returned after the liberation, now as a member of the American Mission in Tirana. The group of saboteurs consisted of former students of Mr. Fultz. The accused exposed in detail the plan drawn up by his group, which was related to the sabotage of the plan for the reconstruction of this sector, by all means. The accused’s wife was passing reports to Harry Fultz about the organization’s criminal activities.
The defendant Eng. Vasil Mano, showed a letter addressed to ing. Avdyl Sharrës (one of the main defendants in the process), where Harry Fultz gave these directives: ‘Be careful with the directives you pass on to the workers, so that the work that is being carried out in the future is not finished before the beginning of winter, because then Anglo – the Americans will have landed on the coast”. Memorie.al
